1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to data transmission with multiple carriers, and, more particularly to communication devices capable of providing multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) and unicast services with multiple carriers and methods thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many communication systems, receivers may receive unicast, broadcast, or multicast data transmissions. For example, Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) is a service in which base stations transmit information of general interest on a commonly used channel, so that mobile devices that subscribe to the service can access the MBMS channels to obtain a service of interest, such as daily news or baseball game scores.
A Long Term Evolution (LTE) system is an evolved next-generation wireless communication system proposed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The LTE system provides high-speed low-latency packet-based communication at a data rate of up to 100 Mbps. The LTE system includes an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) having a plurality of evolved Node-Bs (eNBs), which communicate wirelessly with a plurality of user equipment (UEs) though uplink and downlink radio channels.
The LTE system employs multiple component carriers and carrier aggregation, where multiple component carriers are aggregated to transmit data between eNBs and UEs. However, using multiple component carriers and carrier aggregation increases complexity of providing unicast and broadcast services to the UEs. Thus, communication devices and methods thereof capable of providing MBMS and unicast services with multiple carriers are called for.